Leading emerging markets fintech M-KOPA has made CNBC’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2025 list, coinciding with the company announcing that it has disbursed over $2bn in credit to more than 7 million customers across Africa.
M-KOPA is one of 300 companies awarded across seven market segments. The Pan-African fintech features amongst 40 companies in the ‘Alternative Financing’ category, recognised as companies providing digital funding and lending solutions.
By combining smartphone embedded services with its flexible payment model, M-KOPA has achieved what traditional banks couldn’t: sustainably serving the financially excluded and enabling millions to access economic opportunities.
M-KOPA’s devices go beyond conventional smartphones that simply connect users to the internet. Instead, they’re embedded with health insurance, affordable credit and device protection.
Their Smart Money Platform onboards over 200,000 customers per month and processes over 15 payments per second.
Using over a decade of payment data and AI-driven analytics, M-KOPA has built detailed credit histories for millions previously excluded from traditional banking systems.
M-KOPA operates Africa’s largest direct sales network of over 35,000 representatives across Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Ghana, and South Africa.
The company has expanded beyond smartphones into e-motorbike financing, demonstrating the scalability of its approach across the continent.
Commenting on the milestone, Jesse Moore, CEO and Co-Founder of M-KOPA, said: “Reaching the $2bn credit milestone and being recognised as one of the world’s top fintechs by CNBC represents a critical inflection point, not just for M-KOPA but for how we think about sustainable growth in emerging markets.”
Recent research reinforces this opportunity: a 2025 World Economic Forum report shows global fintech revenues are forecast to reach $1.5 trillion by 2030, driven significantly by emerging markets, whilst studies reveal that over 1.4 billion adults worldwide still lack access to basic financial services.
This positions M-KOPA and similar innovative fintechs as critical catalysts for economic development, proving that private sector solutions can profitably bridge the financial inclusion gap at scale.
Don’t miss important articles during the week. Subscribe to techbuild weekly digest for updates
